Valentine’s Day sees the supermarkets flooded with enticing meal deals. The pink and red packaging, heart-shaped delicacies, and luxurious ingredients make for a delightful treat for your loved ones.
These deals can also offer great value, making it a more affordable option than dining out at a restaurant or pub on February 14. Marks and Spencer and Aldi’s Valentine’s Dine In deals went live on Monday, February 10, so Birmingham Live parenting editor Zoe Chamberlain decided to give them a go.
At M&S, there’s a ‘Two Dine In for £25’ deal on offer which includes a starter, main, side, dessert, and a bottle of wine. Aldi takes a different approach. A section of its fridge area has been dedicated to Valentine’s Day and is filled with tempting Specially Selected products.
M&S Valentine’s Meal Deal
Zoe chose King Prawn and Lobster Thermidor Gratins for starters (usually £7), Fillet Steak Beef Wellington for two (£14), Potatoes Dauphinoise (£3.50) and Chocolate Melt in the Middle Puddings (£5) along with a bottle of Las Dalias Malbec (£8). This would typically have cost £37.50 so she made a saving of £12.50 in the two-dine-in deal.
She said: “The Thermidor gratins looked delicious as soon as I took it out of the packet. I could see huge prawns poking through the lovely crumbly topping. I simply popped them in the oven for 15 minutes and they smelt amazing.
“There was a decent amount of chunky lobster, twice the amount of prawns, and the sauce was super creamy and cheesy. The cheese and parsley crumb topping was crispy and delish. It tasted worth the £25 on its own. I gave it 6 out of 5 stars and I’ve never done that before. They came in pretty china dishes that we washed and kept to reuse afterwards.”
The Beef Wellington was a plump dome of British beef fillet, topped with mushroom duxelles and wrapped in butter puff pastry. There was plenty of meat and the pastry looked golden before it even went into the oven.
Zoe brushed it with beaten egg and baked it for 20 minutes, placing it on the greaseproof paper provided.
Upon removing it from the oven, she discovered it had adhered to the paper and was quite challenging to extract. She said the initial bite was fantastic, but after a few bites, it felt like a large chunk of meat, and the mushroom duxelles lent it an odd taste.
However, she did enjoy the red wine jus, rating it 3.5 stars out of five – saying it paired well with the Malbec wine.
The dauphinoise potatoes were a hit too. The garlic sauce was ‘really creamy’, and the emmental and mature cheddar cheese provided a crispy golden topping – a 4/5 from Zoe.
She continued: “Then it was time for dessert and these chocolate puds really did melt in the middle with luxurious chocolate sauce oozing out onto the plate after cooking them for 20 minutes in the oven. I’d bought some cream to go with them but they really didn’t need it because the cake was so moist and there was just the right amount of rich chocolatey sauce. The outside of the pudding even had a little crunch to it. Sensational. I gave them 5 out of 5 stars.”
Aldi Valentine’s Meal Deal
At Aldi, the shopping experience is more flexible as you simply select and pay for what you desire rather than being restricted to a set criteria. I chose items similar to the M&S deal.
To start, Zoe selected a French Camembert with Red Pepper Swirls Sharing Bread Heart (£3.99), followed by Beef En Croute for two (£4.99), Wagyu Triple Cooked Chips (£1.49), Heart-topped Raspberry Cheesecake Slices (£1.99) and a bottle of Toro Loco Tempranillo wine (£4.99). The total came to £17.45.
The heart-shaped bread swirls were a hit, especially since all you had to do was remove the plastic wrap and place it directly into the oven in its tray. However, be warned that it’s recommended to leave this out of the fridge for an hour before cooking.
The bread was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, breaking away in beautiful swirls, dotted with red peppers.
On the downside, Zoe found the brie somewhat bland and wasn’t convinced that the peppers really enhanced the flavour. She rated the sharing heart 2 out of 5 and would definitely choose the baking camembert alone next time.
Moving onto the main course, Aldi’s Beef En Croute pies appeared significantly smaller and flatter than those from M&S, with a noticeably paler pastry. However after brushing it with beaten egg and baking for 25 minutes, it emerged golden brown.
The pie contained pulled beef in oven gravy, with mushroom duxelles mixed throughout, accompanied by a pleasant red wine gravy. While tasty, it was more like a standard beef pie than anything particularly extraordinary, earning it a rating of 3 out of 5 stars.
The accompanying Toro Loco wine was highly enjoyable and delicious, scoring a perfect 5 out of 5 stars.
Zoe continued: “The Wagyu chips were chunky and quite powdery potato. The instructions suggested cooking them for 16 to 18 minutes but they didn’t seem to crisp up. I took them out of the oven after 20 minutes and they still weren’t very crispy. We ended up leaving some as leftovers on our plates, which tells you everything you need to know. I gave them 2 out of 5 stars.”
Dessert was also a slight disappointment, as Zoe said: “When it came to dessert, the cheesecakes were super pretty, topped with raspberry jam and sugar hearts. This had a zingy fresh flavour but It didn’t have the density of a cheesecake, but was more like a mousse and I found the base a little too crumbly. There were seeds in the raspberry jam topping, which got stuck in my teeth. Not v romantic. I gave it 2 out of 5 stars.”
Overall verdict
Zoe admitted: “I had been really looking forward to this indulgent taste test and I have to say I was left somewhat disappointed. Whilst cheaper in price than the M&S ones, the Aldi Specially Selected ready meals didn’t taste that decadent. I would definitely choose differently if I was doing it again.
“And, whilst I loved the lobster thermidor and the chocolate puddings from M&S, I wouldn’t bother with the beef Wellington again. We both decided we preferred homecooked food at a fraction of the price instead, which was a surprising conclusion and not what we expected at all.”